Museums In India

Nehru Memorial Museum & Library

The residential block of the first Prime Minister of India Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru,TeenMurti House premises, was converted into a museum and library after his demise in 1964. It is formed as an independent body under the  Ministry of Culture and named Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The Nehru Memorial Library today stands out asvery valuable resource centre on matters pertaining to the  first Prime Minister of India.

Over the period of many years, this Library has encouraged and assisted scholars and historical researchers of India through its doctoral study programme calledThe Nehru Memorial Fellowship. This fund has been the help for many reputed scholars likeRamachandraGuha, the well-known historian and OP Kejriwal, the Chief Information commissioner.

NMML has also been among the  best libraries in Delhi giving reference material on Social Sciences with its large literature resource on labour relations in the form of PhD theses, reports, journals  apart from good collection of newspapers.

History

Nehru Memorial Museum and Library had a humble beginning in 1966, in the eastern and western wings of Teen MurtiBhavan, Museum on one part and the Library on the other part, while Padma BhushanBal Ram Nanda took over as the first director and curator. In course of time, the resource for Library grew to such a large extent that a separate Library block was constructed, which was opened by the then President of India, Hon.V V Giri in 1974.. Over a period of time, the resource material for research work having increased a lot, an annex building was also constructed in 1989. Again in 1990, there came the new unit called  Centre for contemporary studies , while the Nehru Planetorium which was under the control of Nehru Memorial Fund, was acquired in 2005.

Different Sections in Museum

Teen MurtiBhawan

This is the main building which is converted into a museum and a library facilitating original research in modern Indian History with special reference to the Nehruvian era.

The Centre for Contemporary Studies

This is the section which was set up as an advanced studies unit of NMML and is accommodated  in the Annexe building.

Nehru Memorial Digital Library

The project of digitalising theentire collection of manuscripts, historical documents and other archival materials of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library was taken up in 2010, with help of HCL Info systems in 2010.By May 2011, with the funding of Union Ministry of Culture to the tune ofRs. 10 crore, project had completed 50 collections of manuscripts, 834 interview transcripts, 29,802 photographs, over one lakh images of the newspaper Amrita Bazar Patrika (1905–1938). When the project is completed, the digitization would cover nine million documents and by 2015 all the material will be available for public online.

Mission

The main objective of the Nehru Memorial Museum &Library  isto preserve and reconstruct the material presenting the  history of the Indian independence movement.  It  alsoaims to foster academic research on modern and contemporary history.

Exhibitions

NMML archives contain most of the Mahatma Gandhi's writings  are exhibited in the main library, apart from private papers consisting of the Nehruji’s correspondence with  C. Rajagopalachari, B. C. Roy,Jayaprakash Narayan, Charan Singh, Sarojini Naidu and RajkumariAmritKaur.

NMML publications exhibited in the Library include Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Man of Destiny by Ruskin Bond, and Nehru Anthology (1980).

To commemorate the Foundation Day of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library,  NMML has also been organising an Annual Lecture on the 1st April every year.

How to Reach

NMML is in the heart of the City of Delhi, which can be reached by public transport, auto-rickshaw and Metro. Delhi is well connected with the rest of the part of the country by air, rail and road, Indira Gandhi International airport having daily schedules of flights to various destinations in India and abroad. Likewise, New Delhi railway station has fast moving trains, such as Rajdhani express trains and Shadapti Express trains to most of the state capitals, while North Delhi station connects all the destinations around Himachal Pradesh and Northern states.

Delhi is also well connected by road, with its National Highways connecting all important cities upto the extreme end of the country in the south.

Entrance is Free.

Photo Gallery